Easy Gazpacho
Salt Lake City Showroom, Cathie Mooers
I love this soup, but then again I love food. On a hot summer’s day, or in the fall when tomatoes are at their peak. This will quench your thirst and cool you down with a little kick in it. If you can’t find vine ripened tomatoes you can use organic canned tomatoes.
4 large vine-ripened tomatoes, room temperature
3 1/2 cups spicy vegetable juice
3 cups cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 cups yellow peppers
1 cup white onions, chopped
¼ a good olive oil
¼ c red wine vinegar or balsamic
3 tbs fresh lemon juice
2 tbs Italian parsley, chopped or 1 tbs Italian parsley and 1 tbs curly parsley
When using fresh tomatoes you will need to blanch them to remove the skin. Add tomatoes to boiling water and blanch for 1 minute, it will be easier to peel them if you make an X across the core of the tomato (where the stem comes off), when the skin starts to peel away it is time to remove from the water, gently pull the skin off. If the skin will not come off easily put back into the hot water and repeat the process. Peel, seed and chop the tomatoes.
Place ingredients into a food processor or blender until it is a coarse puree. Season with sea salt and fresh ground pepper and chill until cold. Garnish with parsley and garlic croutons. If you would like extra garnish, add avocados, fresh sweet corn, and olives, let your mind go wild. If don’t want to use garlic croutons use crisp tortillas strips
Garlic Croutons:
1/3 cup olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
4 thick slices of coarse sourdough bread cut into 1 inch cubes
Infuse the olive oil with garlic by heating a pan to medium high heat combine the oil and garlic, cook until light brown, remove and discard. From here you can cook the croutons 2 ways;
1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll the bread in the pan until coated with the oil, cook in oven until crispy, about 4 to 7 minutes. This is a good way to cook the croutons if you have quite a few; it will speed up the process.
2. Add bread cubes to the pan and fry over high heat until brown, transfer to paper towels and drain. This is a good way to cook the croutons when you only have a small amount to cook.
